Tessy investing $10 million in new plant, infrastructure

Tessy Plastics Corp.
Tessy Plastics Corp. will move its medical molding operations to a newly-purchased building in Skaneateles, N.Y., freeing up space in Elbridge, N.Y.

Tessy Plastics Corp. continues to buy factory buildings in upstate New York — acquiring a 112,000-square-foot former Honeywell building in Skaneateles, N.Y., near its Elbridge headquarters, to house its medical operations.

The factory was built about 10 years ago, said President Roland Beck. “It’s just beautiful. It’s a really nice modern facility,” he said.

Tessy purchased the building on June 3. Beck said the company is investing about $10 million to buy the factory and add infrastructure. That includes a 22,000-square-foot Class 10,000 clean room.

Tessy will move 25 injection molding machines and 10 pieces of automation equipment from Elbridge to Skaneateles. Some new assembly equipment is being delivered in late August, Beck said.

Tessy needs more space for its molding and assembly work to make devices for minimally invasive surgery for Johnson & Johnson. About 100 medical production people will staff the operation, some moving from Elbridge, Beck said. There up to 60 different components in the surgical device, some molded by Tessy and some the company sources.

Tessy does the assembly.

Beck said Tessy got the medical project about eight years ago. The business grew quickly and now is spread over four different areas at the company, with molding in one plant and assembly in another. That limited the potential to expand medical. “So we thought it would be great to put it all under one roof,” he said.

“We never expected it to grow like this. It’s just taken off and grown and grown and become a significant part of our business,” Beck said. “This gives us more room in the future to grow that business.”

The new Skaneateles plastics factory also frees up space in Elbridge for another major market: molding and assembly of packaging for underarm deodorant. In 2010, Tessy built another factory in Elbridge to manufacture the deodorant packaging.

That same year, the company bought the former Syroco resin furniture factory in nearby Van Buren, N.Y., for warehouse space and a distribution center. Beck said that building now also handles assembly of the deodorant packages.

Beck said Tessy employs about 900 in upstate New York.

According to Plastics News’ most recent ranking data, Tessy Plastics is the 31st largest injection molding company in North America, with sales of $230 million.